GBP/JPY refreshes multi-year high at 212.30 amid Japan’s political concerns
|- GBP/JPY jumps to near 212.30 as Japanese Yen underperforms, the highest level seen in over 17 years.
- Japan’s PM Takaichi is expected to call a snap election early in February.
- Investors await UK employment data for fresh cues on the interest rate outlook.
The GBP/JPY pair posts a fresh multi-year high at 212.30 during the Asian trading session on Monday. The pair trades firmly as the Japanese Yen (JPY) underperforms its peers, following reports from Reuters that Japan’s Prime Minister (PM) Sanae Takaichi could call for an early snap election.
Japanese Yen Price Today
The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the weakest against the Swiss Franc.
| USD | EUR | GBP | JPY | CAD | AUD | NZD | CHF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USD | -0.25% | -0.17% | 0.13% | -0.14% | -0.10% | -0.23% | -0.29% | |
| EUR | 0.25% | 0.09% | 0.35% | 0.11% | 0.15% | 0.03% | -0.04% | |
| GBP | 0.17% | -0.09% | 0.28% | 0.03% | 0.07% | -0.06% | -0.12% | |
| JPY | -0.13% | -0.35% | -0.28% | -0.25% | -0.22% | -0.34% | -0.40% | |
| CAD | 0.14% | -0.11% | -0.03% | 0.25% | 0.04% | -0.09% | -0.15% | |
| AUD | 0.10% | -0.15% | -0.07% | 0.22% | -0.04% | -0.12% | -0.19% | |
| NZD | 0.23% | -0.03% | 0.06% | 0.34% | 0.09% | 0.12% | -0.06% | |
| CHF | 0.29% | 0.04% | 0.12% | 0.40% | 0.15% | 0.19% | 0.06% |
The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).
The reports also showed government sources have cited that Japan’s PM Takaichi was considering holding a snap election on February 8 or 15.
The hopes of Japan’s early snap election stemmed after Japan Innovation Party leader, Hirofumi Yoshimura, told public broadcaster NHK that he met with PM Takaichi on Friday and felt her view on the timing of an election had shifted to a new stage.
Japan’s political concerns arose at a time when investors are uncertain about the timeframe of another interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan (BoJ).
Meanwhile, the Pound Sterling (GBP) trades broadly stable ahead of the United Kingdom (UK) employment data for the three months ending in November, scheduled for Tuesday. Investors will pay close attention to the UK labor market data to get fresh cues on the Bank of England’s (BoE) monetary policy outlook.
In 2025, UK labor market concerns remain elevated as firms avoid aggressive hiring to offset the impact of higher employers’ contributions to social security schemes.
Japanese Yen FAQs
The Japanese Yen (JPY) is one of the world’s most traded currencies. Its value is broadly determined by the performance of the Japanese economy, but more specifically by the Bank of Japan’s policy, the differential between Japanese and US bond yields, or risk sentiment among traders, among other factors.
One of the Bank of Japan’s mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy between 2013 and 2024 caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks. More recently, the gradually unwinding of this ultra-loose policy has given some support to the Yen.
Over the last decade, the BoJ’s stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supported a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favored the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen. The BoJ decision in 2024 to gradually abandon the ultra-loose policy, coupled with interest-rate cuts in other major central banks, is narrowing this differential.
The Japanese Yen is often seen as a safe-haven investment. This means that in times of market stress, investors are more likely to put their money in the Japanese currency due to its supposed reliability and stability. Turbulent times are likely to strengthen the Yen’s value against other currencies seen as more risky to invest in.
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